Damsel Page #16

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ELISE:

My grandfather used to tell me a

story of a forbidden garden.

She grows closer. The story unfolds.

ELISE (CONT’D)

The fruit was blessed with light.

It offered eternal life. A tree of

tangled white wood, with leaves of

flame. It sang an angel’s tone.

They grow closer still.

ELISE (CONT’D)

He stole of its fruit and in

return, a powerful witch forced him

to surrender his first born child.

My aunt. Even my father thought it

nothing more than a story.

(MORE)

93.

ELISE (CONT’D)

Something he made up about a child

they had lost in birth, before my

father. Everyone thought it just

another tale of my grandfather’s.

They’re at the tree now.

She runs her fingers through the ghostly flame, unharmed.

She moves her hand along its sturdy branches of white.

ELISE (CONT’D)

Rapunzel said we are connected.

Could it be?

Rapunzel’s infatuation with Elise unfolds.

Fire dances between her fingers. The air around her

sparkles.

Elise is enveloped in its glow.

ELISE (CONT’D)

The whispers. It called me here.

CUT TO:

EXT. IVORY FORTRESS - CONTINUOUS

Rapunzel stands at the top of the grand staircase of white

stone.

She bows her head. Begins to inhale and exhale, drawing

insurmountable power from within.

She shouts a violent war cry, raising her arms high into the

air, summoning forth an epic undead army.

EXT. REDWOOD FOREST - CONTINUOUS

Roots and vines writhe, pulling the skeletons of fallen

soldiers from their unmarked graves.

The creatures hiss and snap as they form, struggling upward

from their earthly prison. They bear the weapons they fell

with.

Vicious horses of bone join, stumbling as they pull

themselves from the dirt. The animals of darkness rear.

Hundreds upon hundreds of undead warriors of vine and bone,

summoned forth by Rapunzel’s power.

94.

EXT. REDWOOD FOREST - MORNING

War looms.

A thick fog floats over the land, wrapping around the trunks

of the giant redwoods.

The king’s army marches.

An eerie crackle, a harsh dry moan from something dark.

A soldier in the frontline notices the sound.

He nudges his neighbor.

THESSIA SOLDIER #1

You hear that?

His cohort nods. Fear overcomes them.

THESSIA SOLDIER #2

I hear it.

Now a beat. The rap of a thousand swords against a thousand

shields.

The drum rolls.

The fog parts, revealing the frontline of Rapunzel’s army.

THESSIA SOLDIER #1

What devil is this?

THESSIA SOLDIER #2

What are they?

They halt.

The eerie crackle grows. The creatures cry out.

It’s an intimidating spectacle. Even more ominous in the

forest’s fog.

GENERAL:

Do not fight on the order of your

king, fight on behalf of your

creator, for today we fight the

devil’s men! The Kingdom of

Thessia is at war with darkness

incarnate. Let us return the

rightful heir that we may prosper

the good nation that hell fears!

The men cry out in support. A rally cry.

95.

GENERAL (CONT’D)

Charge!

The king’s frontline comes to meet Rapunzel’s.

The skeletal creatures of bone and earth against the king’s

forces of iron.

They crash into eachother. Warriors on both sides fall.

A soldier stabs through the ribs of his foe. His sword

slides through its bones and out its back.

Unaffected, the skeleton bashes the soldier with its shield.

The soldier falls and the creature of darkness buries its

sword through him.

It releases its eerie battle cry.

Another soldier severs the bone-arm of his opponent. The

monster fights on.

Rapunzel’s undead army overpower’s the king’s men.

CUT TO:

EXT. SOUTH SHIRE - MORNING

Smoke clouds the morning sky.

The wheat fields of South Shire burn.

INT. ELISE AND BRAUN’S HOME - CONTINUOUS

Braun watches through a small window at the front door of his

home.

Rapunzel’s creatures overpower the small farm town.

A family of four runs. Father, mother and two daughters.

Braun looks on as the mother trips and falls.

He runs to a great sword at the corner of the room.

EXT. ELISE AND BRAUN’S HOME - CONTINUOUS

Braun explodes out the front door of his home, calling after

the fleeing family.

96.

BRAUN:

Over here!

They come toward him. He swings through several of

Rapunzel’s gaining soldiers.

He cuts through arms and legs. Severing their bone limbs.

It’s no use, until he lobs off their heads.

They crumble to a pile of bone and earth.

He rushes the family of four into his home.

BRAUN (CONT’D)

Barricade the door! Open it for no

one but myself!

One of their daughters, gorgeous 17 YEAR OLD ANNABELLE, eyes

brawn with impenetrable gratitude. He looks on her with love

at first site.

He’s filled with newfound conviction as the door closes,

separating the family from the danger he now faces.

CUT TO:

EXT. REDWOOD FOREST - SOUTH - MORNING

Elise and Gilbert sleep. Wrapped together in a blanket.

Fog slithers between their faces.

In the distance, among the trees, a patch of vines swell,

pulling skeletal remains from the ground.

CUT TO:

EXT. REDWOOD FOREST - MORNING

Most of the king’s soldiers lay beaten.

The general is surrounded by the monsters. He lashes out,

severing limbs, dropping many foes. He stands strong.

More come for him. He fells another and another until one

makes a stab at him that he cannot block.

He falls.

The monsters rap on their shields.

97.

They move over the bodies of the fallen soldiers of Thessia.

Toward Edward and his castle, the creatures of darkness

march.

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. REDWOOD FOREST - SOUTH - CONTINUOUS

An eerie crackle startles Gilbert.

GILBERT:

Elise.

He shakes her.

GILBERT (CONT’D)

Elise, wake up.

She’s disoriented. Pulled from a deep sleep.

He puts his finger to his lips, signaling for her silence.

The creatures cry out. The harsh moan. Predatory and

ancient.

Terrifying.

GILBERT (CONT’D)

That sound. I know it.

ELISE:

What is it?

They stand. Cautiously moving together.

The crackle explodes to life from right behind them.

They both catch a glimpse of ghastly creature before

sprinting away.

GILBERT:

Run!

It brings its axe down exactly where Elise would have been.

Elise doubles back for her supplies.

The creature swings at her as she catches hold of her bag.

Gilbert pulls her forward, out of the path of the monster’s

deadly swipe. Together, they run.

98.

Ahead, several more of Rapunzel’s army.

Gilbert and Elise stop in their tracks, backing in another

direction.

Again, from directly behind them, the crackle.

Elise cries out in fear. They make a run for it, breaking

into an open space at the right.

One of the soldiers catches Elise with its shield.

Elise falls hard. Leaves and gravel fly.

Gilbert grabs the creature’s shield and pushes it backward,

stumbling on top of it.

The skeleton bites and snaps as Gilbert twists its skull from

its shoulders. It falls limp.

Gilbert grabs its sword just in time to catch another

creature behind them, readying a thorough stab at Elise.

He flies at it, swinging against the creatures might.

The thick metal swords compete. Gilbert cuts the monster

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